Areas of Specialization
Anxiety
Everyone is familiar with anxiety. However, intense levels of anxiety and prolonged feelings of fear or worry can interfere with your vitality, relationships, career, and physical well-being.
There are different types of anxiety, each with its own distinct symptoms.
I have experience working with clients on the following types of anxiety among others.
Psychotherapy can help you gain tools and strategies to cope with anxiety in a healthy way.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD):
Symptoms vary and could include: overthinking plans and solutions to worst-case scenarios, difficulty handling uncertainty, inability to relax, difficulty concentrating, persistent worrying, or anxiety about a number of topics that are out of proportion to the impact of the events.
Physical signs and symptoms can include: fatigue, trouble sleeping, trembling, sweating, nausea, irritability, muscle aches. GAD can lead to digestive or bowel problems, migraines, chronic pain, insomnia, heart-health issues.
GAD can impair your ability to perform tasks efficiently, take your time and focus away from the task at hand, feel draining, increase your risk of depression.
Social Anxiety:
Do you experience trembling or shaking in social settings? Do you worry intensely before attending an event? Are you worried about embarrassing yourself? Do you worry that others will notice you are stressed or nervous?
The criteria for social anxiety disorder include anxiety that disrupts your daily living, a realization that your fears are unreasonable, feeling anxious or panicky before a social interaction, and constant fear of social situations due to fear of embarrassment or humiliation.
Panic:
People with panic disorder experience unexpected and repeated panic attacks. A panic attack is an abrupt rush of intense discomfort or fear which may include symptoms such as sweating, shaking, chest pain, chills, numbness, chills or hot flashes, fear of dying, shortness of breath, and more. Panic attacks tend to start quickly and reach a peak within 10 minutes.
People with panic anxiety may become scared that they will have more attacks and fear that something bad will happen because of the attack.
Exploring the root cause of your anxiety and creating an ‘anxiety plan’ including practical strategies and tools to manage the anxiety can be important components of the healing process.
Self Esteem
Do you lack self-trust? Constantly compare yourself to others? Engage in people-pleasing behaviours? Feel little control over your life? Have difficulty reinforcing healthy boundaries?
Self-esteem refers to a person’s overall sense of self-value. It plays a critical role in a variety of areas in life. It not only impacts how you feel about yourself, but it also plays a role in how you allow others to treat you. It can affect your motivation and level of action to go after what you want in life, your ability to self-advocate, and ability to develop healthy relationships.
Low self-esteem can look like trouble accepting compliments, negative self-talk, substance abuse, fear of failing, social withdrawal, hopelessness, worry and self-doubt, hostility, difficulty asking for what you need, feeling powerless to fix your own problems, extra sensitive to criticisms or rejection.
Doing the work to build your self-esteem can be life-changing. I find working with clients on boosting their self-esteem to be most rewarding. You deserve to prioritize and believe in yourself!
Relationships
When imperfect people come together, it makes sense that our relationships are also imperfect. Relationships are challenging and complex, just like we are. It’s no wonder knowing how to navigate relationships can be difficult. The need for human connection seems innate but the ability to form healthy, supportive relationships is learned and takes work.
I speak with clients about different types of relationships; romantic partners, family members, friendships, and co-workers. Exploring attachment theories, communication and conflict styles, common thought and behaviour patterns, values, can help us gain clarity and work towards building supportive relationships that can be rewarding and loving.
Stress In Teaching (and other careers)
If you are a teacher, you are no stranger to stress. I work with many clients who experience career stress, a number of them being teachers. With over ten years of experience as a teacher, I am familiar with the daily demands and can help.
Selfless teachers who put the needs of others first, must make a shift to begin to look after themselves. I can help with managing expectations, increasing self-awareness, setting healthy boundaries, working to your strengths, asking for support, challenging imposter syndrome and the loud inner critic.
Burnout is the name given to the host of symptoms caused by an overwhelming, stressful environment – including fatigue, muscle aches, headaches and stomach issues, as well as psychological effects such as listlessness and loss of motivation.
Burnout has increased since more people are working from home and work-life boundaries have become blurred. Burnout is also occurring to those who experience perfectionistic tendencies or those who experience the grind of hustle culture which is still very prevalent in many industries.
There are effective ways to manage and reduce the impact of burnout.
Exploring your own internal barriers to success, developing stress awareness, resilience, and coping strategies can help. We can explore techniques that work for your lifestyle and interests. You do have the agency to change your life and prioritize balance.
Life Transitions
I’ve worked with clients on major life transitions including becoming a parent, entering the workforce, divorce, career change, retirement, changes in health, loss of a loved one, and moving.
As we know, adjusting to change can be difficult, even if it is a positive one! Stress can develop out of the fear or the unknown. The change also disrupts our daily life and can be uncomfortable, causing us to feel ‘stuck’ in the ‘in-between’.
Exploring coping strategies, preparing for changes, checking your self-talk, developing a positive mindset, building support networks, staying connected, having realistic timeframes and expectations, setting goals, practicing self-compassion, and keeping the big picture in mind are some areas to explore when it comes to life transitions.